Japan
The Empire of Japan (大日本帝國 Dai Nippon Teikoku, literally meaning "Great Japanese Empire")9 was the historical nation-state2 and great power that existed from the Meiji Restoration in 1868 to the enactment of the 1947 constitution of modern Japan (in our timeline).1 HISTORY Japan's rapid industrialization and militarization under the slogan Fukoku Kyōhei (富國強兵, "Enrich the Country, Strengthen the Armed Forces") led to its emergence as a world power and the establishment of a colonial empire. Economic and political turmoil in the 1920s led to the rise of militarism, eventually culminating in Japan's membership in the Axis alliance and the conquest of a large part of the Asia-Pacific region. Japan's armed forces initially achieved large-scale military successes during the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945) and the Pacific War. However, after suffering many defeats and following the Soviet Union's declaration of war against Japan and invasion of Manchuria, and the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Empire surrendered to the Allies on August 15, 1945. A period of occupation by the Allies followed the surrender, and a new constitution was created with American involvement in 1947, officially bringing the Empire of Japan to an end. Occupation and reconstruction continued well into the 1950s, eventually forming the current nation-state whose full title is the "State of Japan" or simply rendered "Japan" in English. The Emperors during this time, which spanned the entire Meiji and Taishō, and the lesser part of the Shōwa eras, are now known in Japan by their posthumous names, which coincide with those era names: Emperor Meiji(Mutsuhito), Emperor Taishō (Yoshihito), and Emperor Shōwa (Hirohito). Game Timeline (New Order, New Colossus & Youngblood) The Empire of Japan is one of the allies of Nazi Germany and is depicted as having successfully conquered and vassalized China, India and much of East Asia during World War II. After the fall of the Soviet Union, Japan also conquered large swathes of territory in Eastern Siberia and the final defeat and capitulation of the Allies in 1946 made Imperial Japan one of the victors of World War II, along with Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany. Unfortunately for Imperial Japan (and almost every other Axis power for that matter), despite their victory in World War II, the peace was not to last as the National Socialist ideology in Nazi Germany, and with it, the country itself, had by this point become distorted to a degree where the Nazis no longer saw any reason not to conquer the entire world, causing Germany to start attacking anyone and anything around it, betraying its former allies along the way. Fascist Italy was betrayed, invaded, occupied and destroyed in 1949 and Imperial Japan was attacked soon after that. For all its military power and size, the Imperial Japanese military was unable to resist the overwhelming technological superiority of the German Wehrmacht and Japan was ultimately defeated at some point in the 1950s, making it the last known Axis country to fall to Germany. Unlike most other countries in the world, Imperial Japan was neither annexed nor turned into a German colony but was instead allowed to continue existing as an independent state into the 1960s, 1980s and beyond, albeit as a German satellite state and reduced to only the Japanese Home Islands and the Korean Peninsula along with some other territories. Category:Axis Category:Real life places Category:Locations Category:Nations